Hi JKP,
Great pics, but only the last one is 15th C.
I'm really surprised that the earlier ones are so hard to come by.
Here's a slightly later (1555) woodcut representing Mount Hekla in Iceland, from Olaus Magnus' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus.
![[Image: 4217712bbe64876c5a94371320da23d7.jpg]](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/42/17/71/4217712bbe64876c5a94371320da23d7.jpg)
Notice the three structures at the bottom: I think that this image is what your "recreation of what Vesuvius may have looked like" is actually based on. The pipes, and the structure of the 19thC drawing in general, are probably copied from the 16thC image of Hekla, adding Italian towns around it, and not specific to Vesuvius.
19thC sources, while well-meaning, tended to aggregate a lot of disparate things to produce "facts" about the middle ages (see Viollet-le-Duc's architectural "restorations" for example...). I never take them at face value.
The Phlegrean fields (Pozzuoli area you mention) have been on lots of people's radars for a while. They do offer lots of elements that are quite tempting in comparison with what is going on in the Voynich: volcanic activity, craters, vents, thermal baths, etc...
To your last point:
Volcanoes, and volcanic sites in general (not just Pozzuoli and far from it) are often referred to as the gates of hell/the underword. This is true for Hekla, but also for Vulcano in the Eolian islands, as well as the Plutonium in Hierapolis that davidjackson mentioned in a recent post, just to name a few.
Great pics, but only the last one is 15th C.
I'm really surprised that the earlier ones are so hard to come by.
Here's a slightly later (1555) woodcut representing Mount Hekla in Iceland, from Olaus Magnus' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus.
Notice the three structures at the bottom: I think that this image is what your "recreation of what Vesuvius may have looked like" is actually based on. The pipes, and the structure of the 19thC drawing in general, are probably copied from the 16thC image of Hekla, adding Italian towns around it, and not specific to Vesuvius.
19thC sources, while well-meaning, tended to aggregate a lot of disparate things to produce "facts" about the middle ages (see Viollet-le-Duc's architectural "restorations" for example...). I never take them at face value.
The Phlegrean fields (Pozzuoli area you mention) have been on lots of people's radars for a while. They do offer lots of elements that are quite tempting in comparison with what is going on in the Voynich: volcanic activity, craters, vents, thermal baths, etc...
To your last point:
Volcanoes, and volcanic sites in general (not just Pozzuoli and far from it) are often referred to as the gates of hell/the underword. This is true for Hekla, but also for Vulcano in the Eolian islands, as well as the Plutonium in Hierapolis that davidjackson mentioned in a recent post, just to name a few.
